justice rising: part 3

It’s been three weeks since I gained awareness about the realities of abuse toward women and girls in developing countries. It started with a simple conversation and has developed into time spent researching, making phone calls, and praying.

I didn’t know how God would answer these prayers. Or what my part in the fight would look like. Or even when I’d get some kind of open door, a green light to do something, anything.

But I got my first answer today.

When I checked my mail, a lone magazine sat, rolled up and slightly torn, in my mailbox. After smoothing out the cover, I found myself staring into the eyes of a girl from Afghanistan, the headline below her face reading, “The Grim Reality for Girls.”

Thank you, I whispered.

After reading through several articles in the World Vision magazine, I was confronted with countless ways to help women and girls in the Middle East, even just one girl through sponsorship. As I thought about what it would mean to give to one daughter in a poverty-stricken nation, I was reminded: change occurs by degrees.

But I don’t want to wait. I don’t want small steps. I want to wake up tomorrow morning to a world where women and girls are free, empowered, treated with tenderness, admired for their beauty. I want to find that it’s all gone away – the pain, hate and brokenness. But the more I thought about being part of changing even just one girl for the better, for her life, even for eternity, I experienced a deep joy, gratefulness, and love. It’s okay, even good, that it’s about only one life, little mercies over time.

I never expected this journey, this awareness, this justice rising in me. But now that I’m here, and going somwhere, I am awed. Awed at how unexpectedly it all came about, at how I get to be part of something so much bigger, at how hopeful the eyes of a girl in poverty can be.

*If this journey in justice has inspired you, please check out World Vision for ways to give.